The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee Handling of a letter sent by Mr Man Haron Monis to the Attorney-General September 2015 Commonwealth of Australia 2015 ISBN 978-1-76010-256-2 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/. This document was produced by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee secretariat and printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Department of the Senate, Parliament House, Canberra. ii Members of the committee Members Senator Penny Wright (AG, SA) (Chair) to 25.06.2015 Senator Glenn Lazarus (IND, QLD) (Chair) from 25.06.2015 Senator the Hon Ian Macdonald (LP, QLD) (Deputy Chair) Senator Catryna Bilyk (ALP, TAS) Senator Jacinta Collins (ALP, VIC) Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig (ALP, QLD) Senator Linda Reynolds (LP, WA) Secretariat Ms Sophie Dunstone, Committee Secretary Mr Hari Gupta, Senior Research Officer Mr Joshua Wrest, Research Officer Ms Jo-Anne Holmes, Administrative Officer Suite S1.61 Telephone: (02) 6277 3560 Parliament House Fax: (02) 6277 5794 CANBERRA ACT 2600 Email: [email protected] iii iv Table of contents Members of the committee ............................................................................... iii Recommendations .............................................................................................vii Chapter 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Referral of the inquiry ............................................................................................ 1 Conduct of the inquiry ............................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgement .................................................................................................. 1 Structure of the report ............................................................................................. 2 Background ............................................................................................................. 2 Chapter 2 Key issues................................................................................................................... 7 Why was the Monis letter not provided to the Thawley-Comley review? ............. 7 Consideration of the Monis letter by the Thawley-Comley review ..................... 10 The AGD's document handling processes ............................................................ 12 The AGD's resources ............................................................................................ 12 The AGD's protocols, procedures and staff training ............................................ 13 Responding to sensitive correspondence .............................................................. 14 Correction of evidence given during estimates .................................................... 15 Attorney-General's media release ......................................................................... 18 Committee's views and recommendations ........................................................... 20 Dissenting Report from Government Senators .............................................. 31 v Australian Labor Party senators' additional comments ............................... 39 Appendix 1 - Public hearings and witnesses ................................................... 59 Appendix 2 - Answers to questions on notice ................................................. 61 vi Recommendations Recommendation 1 2.66 The committee reminds government agencies and statutory authorities, that where evidence is given in error to a Senate committee, the primary duty of the department or statutory authority is to the committee. Witnesses must bring errors or suspected errors to the attention of the relevant Senate committee as a priority. Recommendation 2 2.72 The committee recommends that senior executive staff across the Australian Public Service, including the secretaries of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Attorney-General's Department, undergo training in parliamentary accountability provided by the Department of the Senate, including but not limited to seminars routinely provided for senior executives. Recommendation 3 2.76 The committee recommends that the Attorney-General's Department: • formally draw to the attention of all of its officers' the document search and document management protocol; • implement appropriate training programs to ensure adherence to the protocol; and • consult with the Australian Government Solicitor for the purpose of reviewing this protocol in a comprehensive and purposeful manner. Recommendation 4 2.78 The committee recommends that the Attorney-General's Department: • review the allocation of resources across its divisions; • undertake formal risk assessments to mitigate risks associated with the cross-divisional movement of staff and the ad hoc use of staff across departmental divisions; and • develop and implement training for its staff relating to intra- departmental document management and communications. Recommendation 5 2.80 The committee recommends that the Attorney-General's Department implement a training program to ensure that officers responding to vii correspondence are better aware of the political and cultural connotations of titles and names, especially in relation to known terrorist organisations. Recommendation 6 2.82 The committee recommends that the Attorney-General's Department subject its document handling procedures to both regular and random audits, to inform further development of protocols, and training and resource requirements. Recommendation 7 2.85 The committee recommends that the Attorney-General's Department routinely consult the relevant intelligence and security agencies in relation to sensitive correspondence, especially where it has or may have national security implications. Recommendation 8 2.87 The committee recommends that all Commonwealth government agencies ensure that they have procedures in place to bring sensitive correspondence which has or may have national security implications to the attention of the relevant intelligence and security agencies in a timely manner. Recommendation 9 2.90 The committee recommends that the Attorney-General's Department review its procedures related to the application of the Web Guide: Guidelines for Ministerial and Agency Websites in a comprehensive and purposeful manner to ensure that these guidelines are applied consistently, objectively and apolitically. viii Chapter 1 Introduction Referral of the inquiry 1.1 On 16 June 2015, the Senate referred the following matter to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee (committee) for inquiry and report by 25 June 2015: The handling of a letter sent by Mr Man Haron Monis to the Attorney-General, dated 7 October 2014, and the evidence provided during the Budget estimates, including the subsequent correction of that evidence, with particular reference to: (a) the details of the internal inquiry conducted by the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, Mr Chris Moraitis, following the discovery that incorrect evidence had been provided and any subsequent changes made to administrative practices between the department and the Attorney-General's office; (b) the consideration given by the Joint Commonwealth and New South Wales review team to the correspondence sent by Mr Monis to various members of Parliament and other relevant documents and the basis for the assertion by Mr Thawley that the correspondence would make no difference to the findings of the review; and (c) what, if any, changes were made to procedures for the handling of incoming correspondence to the Attorney-General's Department and the Attorney-General's office following the raising of the national terrorism public alert level to 'High' on 12 September 2014.1 1.2 On 25 June 2015, the Senate extended the committee's reporting date to 12 August 2015.2 Conduct of the inquiry 1.3 The committee advertised the inquiry on its website (http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Cons titutional_Affairs). The committee held three public hearings in Canberra on 19 June 2015, 23 June 2015 and 3 August 2015 respectively. A list of witnesses who appeared before the committee at the hearings is at Appendix 1. Acknowledgement 1.1 The committee thanks all those who gave evidence at its hearings. 1 Senate, Journals of the Senate, No. 96–16 June 2015, p. 2663. 2 Senate, Journals of the Senate, No. 102–25 June 2015, p. 2820. 2 Structure of the report 1.2 The report is comprised of two chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the matter and provides some background. Chapter 2 examines the substantive issues raised at the hearings and through answers to written questions on notice, and outlines the committee's views and recommendations. Background 1.4 On 29 January 2015, Counsel Assisting the NSW State Coroner during the Lindt Café siege coronial inquest stated that the investigation would examine: the product of the work of the Martin Place Siege Joint NSW and Commonwealth Government Review…That Review is not taking oral evidence or dealing with the evidence of the siege. Its work is principally a gathering and a review of documentary records of both state and commonwealth [sic] government contact with or assessment of Mr Monis over the whole of